A Little About Me....from A to Z

I saw this A to Z questionnaire on "My Best Friend Jules" and wanted to join in:

A: Age - 38

B: Bed Size - Queen, soon to be King

C: Chore That You Hate - Easy Question....ironing. Without a close second.

D: Dogs - Two lovely beasts....Kenzie (almost 12 years old) & Hubbell (10 years old)

E: Essential Start to Your Day - Chai Tea Latte

F: Favorite Color - Any Shade of Blue & Seafoam Green

G: Gold or Silver - Silver

H:Height - 5 feet, 6 inches tall

I: Instruments You Play - Unfortunately, none. I do dream about playing the drums though.

J:Job Title - Currently working on a gig where I would be the Director of Marketing & Business Development
K: Kids - Two divine little girls....Sophie (5) & Clara (2 months)

L:Live - The Queen City, Charlotte, North Carolina

M: Mother's Name - Regina, which means "Queen"

N:Nicknames - Double A, Cool Breeze, Audie

O: Overnight Hospital Stays - Three. Birth of both girls. One overnight stay with Sophie when she had an infection (by far the scariest of the three!)

P:Pet Peeves - Do I only get to pick one? I don't like when people call my name, I answer back and then they don't respond. Drives me mad. Litterbugs. Mean people. Folks who don't recycle. Smoking.

Q:Quote from a Movie - My favorite line is from Shawshank Redemption ~ Andy Dufresne - who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side. I use that one often in my life. And I like a bunch from Raising Arizona ("Hi, I want me a baby." or "Son, you have a panty on your head."). I love "You Can't Handle the Truth". There are so, so many!

R:Right or Left Handed - Right

S:Siblings - A Lil' Bro, Christopher.

T:Time You Wake Up -When my girls wake me

U:Undies -Um, yes????

V:Vegetable You Hate - I don't hate any of them. But I'm not fond of broccoli.

W:What Makes You Run Late - Everything. I'm a procrastinator.

X:X-Rays You've Had -Too many to remember.

Y:Yummy Food That You Make - I don't like to cook at all. I'm stumped as to how to answer this one.....

Z:Zoo Animal -I love them all. Just wish they weren't in a zoo. But the apes are my favorite ~ I could literally sit and watch them all day long....I know, I've done it before.

Anyone else want to join?

Sometimes I sits and thinks.....

.....and sometimes I just sits.

A Lot Can Happen in Five Months

This is me sitting on the porch at Lawton Stables in Sea Pines, Hilton Head. Sophie took this photo of me during our Mother-Daughter trip in April. I was six months pregnant with Clara.

The photos below are of me and Clara sitting in the same rocking chair only one week ago. It's amazing how much life can change, how much better it can get in only five months time.

I love my delicious little strawberry!

Nature Found: Hilton Head

A live sand dollar. In a tide pool. Dusk. Folly Field Beach.

A shy crab. See the little claws tucked in there? Folly Field Beach.

A massive cloud that shielded the sun on our dolphin watching tour.

A gorgeous butterfly. Lawton Stables. Sea Pines.

Majestic flower. Lawton Stables. Sea Pines.

Divine blooms. On Marriott Barony Beach property. Port Royal.

Wild mushrooms. Port Royal.

Massive mushroom. Port Royal.

What We Leave Behind

As I'm hoping is clear on this blog, I am aiming to live a much simpler life. I spend a good deal of time reading on voluntary simplicity and I follow some blogs of others taking a similar path. Lately there seems to be a lot of focus about how our "stuff" doesn't define us. It doesn't fill us up inside or make us happy. When we take leave of this world, will others remember us by what we owned? Not likely. All this talk has me thinking a lot about how I would want to be remembered. While looking back through photos of past vacations, I came across this image. Me...kayaking on a beach vacation. Likely on the lookout for dolphins. Enjoying the serenity of the lapping water and the barely audible fiddling of crabs on the banks. Gazing at the sea birds as they float by. Being calmed by the lull of my kayak as it bobs about in the water. It's in moments like these that I feel most at peace. When the worries of the world are washed away. I am me. Still a mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend. But closest to myself. This is how I would want to be remembered. At peace and close to nature.

This makes me curious. How would you want to be remembered?

Happy 200th!!!!

Today I am celebrating my 200th post on this blog. For the most part, I have no idea who reads LSP. I have a few stalwart family members and a couple of friends who seem to read it religiously. A shout-out to those lovely folks ~ you know who you are. I so appreciate those who mention posts to me, ask questions about something I've written or leave a comment. Even more so, it makes me feel good when people say how much they enjoy reading the blog or tell me how something I've written touches them. At the end of the day though, I created this blog for me. It's my journal, a little creative outlet, a love letter to my girls. A place to document the goings-on in my life. It brings me a lot of pleasure and I miss it when I'm unable to write. SO, Happy 200th Post to my blog. May there be many more.....

After only a few days....

.....I am already missing the beach....

You won't find me laying in the sun on the sand or swimming in the ocean. I'm just not a beach person. But I do love wading through the tide pool at low tide looking for signs of nature and special treasures (more to come on this). I was particularly mesmerized by the indentation a starfish left behind......so lovely.